Israel will push on with its offensive against Hamas, including into the southern Gaza city of Rafah, despite growing international pressure to stop, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday.
Netanyahu has vowed to destroy Hamas after its fighters attacked southern Israel on Oct. 7, killing 1,200 people and abducting 253, according to Israeli tallies. More than 30,000 people have been killed in Gaza during Israel’s subsequent offensive, Palestinian health authorities estimate, prompting worldwide criticism and condemnation.
“There is international pressure and it’s growing, but particularly when the international pressure rises, we must close ranks, we need to stand together against the attempts to stop the war,” he said.
According to half of lemmy he can press a magic button to stop it.
Oh, and it’s his fault… Somehow.
It’s not his fault, but he has approved a number of military aid packages that get sent directly to Israel. So, in a way, it kinda is indirectly his fault.
Instead of dealing with our own problems in our country, he’s giving money to Israel to participate in genocide.
Nice strawman.
What he could do, at the very least, is follow the tone already set by his VP, or even (dare I say it) threaten to pause US military support if the assault on Rafa goes ahead.
What’s the straw man I presented?
He’s personally stopped Netanyahu before. The Israelis stopped bombing Gaza in 2021 after one phone call.
Also supplying the bombs makes you pretty fucking complicit. Everyone understood this when Iran supplied AQ with roadside bombs in Iraq but now it’s some distant concept.
Yeah the button is labeled “stop transfer of bombs to Isreal”. All he has to do is push it. Without the unlimited firehouse of US taxpayer funded weapons flowing in, Isreal will have to decide whether they want to draw down their current stocks blowing up residential houses and hospitals, leaving them more vulnerable to actual threats, or pull back. Also, the US is the only thing holding back international accountability. If Isreal loses that support, they might face consequences for their actions, become isolated, lose trade, etc.
Now it doesn’t have to get all the way to that point, the US could just seriously threaten cutting off support, military or otherwise, and Israel would likely back down. But Biden calling bibi and saying “pwease don’t target civilians” is not asserting pressure.
Biden won’t do more because he knows if he puts real pressure on Isreal then Republicans would attack him as “weak on Hamas” or whatever, and that threatens his reelection. Biden cares about that far more than human rights.
That’s only half the problem. The other half is that they don’t know that diplomacy happens behind closed doors.
For instance, the DOD has been working the last couple of weeks getting together material for the floating docks for Gaza announced today. If you think this angers Bibi, you would be right. Instead half of Lemmy takes credit for it by their uncommitted votes. Ridiculous, but that’s OK.
As for this, the rumor is that Biden has some consequences for Bibi if he makes a move on Rafah.